An honest exploration into the current state of Black culture in American society with the goal of determining if this culture in it's modern form is supporting our "TRANSFORMATION" as a people or impeding it? The result is a forthright attempt to present a corrective set of actions to address the issues that are found and put us in line with our stated goals as a people.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I heard it coming! I heard my wife say to my son from upstairs "Go ask your father...he is right there!".

I then heard my son come down stairs and into the kitchen a few minutes ago and say "Daddy Can I have a Band aide for my leg? Mommy told me to ask you".

DADDY: "What is wrong with your leg?"

SON: "I have a sore on it and it hurts"

DADDY: "Let me see"

DADDY: "Is it bleeding? It doesn't look like its bleeding"

SON: "No its not bleeding but it hurts when I touch it"

DADDY: "Well stop touching it. Bandages are used to soak up blood from bleeding sores. They don't do anything for pain"

SON: "You said 'bandage'....it is 'Band-aide' (like the obfuscation attempts by N8 or Umbercrist)

DADDY: "You remember the stuff you said was water that you poured down the drain the other day? (a whole bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide) That is meant to be put on sores like the one you have. It will help it heal. A bandage will not do anything for a sore like yours that is not bleeding. Do you want me to put some of this stuff on it?

SON: No. It will hurt. I want a band aide.

After pretending the read the labels for both the box of bandages and the hydrogen peroxide telling him that the one soaks up blood and the other heals sores I GAVE UP!!!!

I put the bandage on the sore.

He ran back upstairs HAPPY. Miraculously the sore did not hurt any longer JUST BECAUSE a band aide was put over the sore though nothing else changed.

SOME TIMES PACIFYING SOMEONE DESPITE YOU KNOWING OTHERWISE IS THE EASIEST WAY TO MAKE THEM FEEL BETTER REGARDLESS OF IF WHAT YOU DID IS EFFECTIVELY GOING TO ADDRESS THEIR PAIN OR NOT.

IF, however, this person really "WANTS TO BE HEALED" then they will accept the option that has been PROVEN to heal rather than the "feel good" option based on their limited understanding.

Funny how the rationalization skills of a 4 year old does not differ much from some grown folks that I interact with.

Friday, January 05, 2007

The so called Black Leadership does not know how to EFFECTIVELY deal with Black on Black crime because it does not lend it self naturally to their typical choice of weapons to confront a problem that besets Black people. No PROTEST, speech that displays an engineered sense of outrage or letter writing campaign against a Conservative bad guy who "doesn't like Black people" is going to change this fact that is leading so many Black Americans to an early grave each year.

This level of violence WITHIN the Black community is residue from some long ignored forces. After all these are largely "our own sons" who are killing each other. The primary message needs to be crafted for them. While many of these same progressives are understandably loathsome of producing a "lock'em up and throw away the key" approach to dealing with the problem in that it deals with the problem after the trigger is pulled and the funeral is over, in truth some of the policies that they have fought the hardest for over time contribute significantly to the problem.

In a chat board that I participate in most members took an "ideological test" that plotted everyone to a particular set of coordinates. On the X axis was your views on economic issues - strong government control to the left, market based control on the right. On the Y axis was your view of social issues - strong government control at the top, "do it if it feels good to ya" libertarianism at the bottom. Interestingly enough most of the "brothas and sistas" who I have the most strident debates with scored in the quadrant that demanded strong government control of the economy with a "key your laws off of me" perspective with respect to social control of the people.

In effect this is a plot of what we often hear within the Black community where there is a never ending call for MORE GOVERNMENT FUNDING to correct social ills as they also reject most policies that ask the individual "victim" within to "do participate in his own salvation" as a means of receiving salvation. This is called "BLAMING THE VICTIM".

Take a look at Philadelphia. Last year in response to the record number of Black on Black homicides several community activist groups drove 107 miles to Harrisburg, the state capital to ask the GOVERNMENT to do something to keep their sons from getting their hands on guns. The fact that certain White legislators who did not live in the crime plagued cities resisted stronger gun control laws as the impetus to shift the conversation over to that which is most comfortable for Black activists - blaming WHITEY. These White "conservatives" did not care that Black people were killing each other, it was said. They cared more about their own ability to hunt game and possess guns in the event that the problem spilled over into their community it was said.

Lost in this entire episode was the fact that these people had to depart their own communities rather than huddle within and formulate a message for the products of their own households. Where are the EFFECTIVE strategies at conflict resolution? Where are the initiatives to break the long held claims that it is in fact the "content providers" in Thug Rap rather than just the "White Entertainment companies" who are propagating the image of thugs, drugs and fast women in fast cars to these people who are caught up in the game? We have control of these companies via the money we choose to spend or not spend as a vote of our preferences. More so - we have control of our Black sons because they were born from our bodies and conditioned into this world by the hand that rocks the cradle.

The problem can no longer be obfuscated folks. Rather than having the "fire and brimstone" damnation, playing on images of uncontrolled reproduction - which only turns people off, we need to focus on MANAGEMENT of our human resources within our community. More adult face time spent with groups of children, active filtering of the music and video games that put ideas into their heads and more of a sense of COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP.

Rather than falling into the cycle of seeking ever expansive federal government funding for these programs the community needs to focus upon more human interaction themes within the church halls and community centers that are already in existence within. Independence and self determination needs to be key.

The Black community is nearing a point where our desperation for change is going to be born out by massive riots or IF MANAGED PROPERLY by a willingness WITHIN to accept certain public policy principles that the current "Negros on stage with a mic in their hands" have been loathed to accept in the past because the burden is placed UPON THE BLACK COMMUNITY for the conduct of EFFECTIVE change, rather than the injection of external government funds attempting to do so.

The Way To Prosperity

Heal The Land By First Healing The Consciousness Of The People

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The Functional Culture Blog Affirms "Black Equality"

I Affirm That "Black People Are 100% Equal" And Acknowledge That This Concept Must Be Enforced Within All Interactions Among Equal Human Peers For This Notion To Take Root Inside Of Our Nation's Consciousness. I Only Support Polices That Transform Black People Into the UN-Least Of These

Great Carter G Woodson Quotes

“If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”Carter G. Woodson

If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto.Carter G. Woodson

The thought of' the inferiority of the Negro is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he studies.Carter G. Woodson

In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent.Carter G. Woodson

The Perpetual External Chase For Resepct OR The Constant Management Of Your Internal Resources?

Which is the better position of leverage?
Which provides the most enduring and comprehensive benefit upon "success"?

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Is It More Rationale To Go After Ignorant Words Said About You Or To Make Sure That You Manage Your Community So That The Words Are A Lie?

Deracinate

Deracinate

To pull out by the roots; uproot.

To displace from one's native or accustomed environment.

Sentence: "Some people need to be deracinated from their present consciousness before they will experience material change in their condition."